Downtown Portland, OR

[/caption] Portland is a very challenging city to photograph, due to the high vegetation and hills that engulf the city. However, one of the best places to get a good view is from the SW Vista Ave. bridge. The only downside, however, is that you will have to look at the view below that includes the many power lines and the tall trees that obscure the view. It’s also too bad that the bridge wasn’t another 100 feet higher in order to get a better view of the city. Mt. Hood is also partially hidden behind some of the high rises but if you move around you can get the mountain in plain view but then you won’t be a able to take a photo with the majority of the buildings in the photo. I wanted to include a photo with all of the buildings so I took this panoramic shot with the KOIN tower and the Ben Franklin. However, I had to crop out the unnecessary power lines and street below as well as some of the sky above. I have never been satisfied with any of my photos from the bridge but I always return hoping that I can someday get a good shot. I was using my Sigma 17-70mm lens but set the focal length at 25mm since anything wider would have included too much vegetation.